Difference
by ichigoangel
Summary: Eren's court trial needed to be put off due to the Scouting Legion having to leave before it could take place. Focuses on Eren's time spent in the dungeon in the custody of the Military Police.


"Filthy fuckin' scum. Shouldn't even have to waste my own goddamn energy on 'im."

"Ay, why are we the ones stuck with the shittiest job there is? This ain't fuckin' fair."

"Dunno, but if it were up to me the piece of shit would be long dead already. No use in keepin' a monster like 'im around, in my opinion I don't understand why they won't kill 'im yet, or at least get their goddamned experiments over with so that they can get rid of him."

The Military Police required that two officers be stationed in front of Eren's cell at all times. The daily guards were always determined by simplistic games of luck such as the flip of a coin. No matter who won or lost, the results were always the same – They would bitch and moan about having to even _look_ at that filth and desperately try to pawn their work off on the others. They felt it was an injustice on them that they had to keep track of "humanity's hope". The Military Police didn't give a shit about the fact that Eren could be humanity's greatest chance at putting up a decent fight against the titans. To them, he was a potential threat to their comfortable, easy lives.

At first, scouting legion elites had also helped to keep watch over Eren. The elites would often dismiss the Military Police guards, much to the guard's elation. These were the times that Eren saw any small form of comfort - The scouting legion were fully aware of how beneficial Eren could be to them and thus they tried to treat him as a human, not a monster like the guards. Hanji was more than willing to strike a conversation with him about strategies that could potentially involve using Eren's titan form to their advantage. The others kept their distance a bit more than Hanji, but none of them regarded Eren in the cruel manner that the guards did. Although Rivaille did have a tendency to just call Eren a shitty brat and then leave in pursuit of action more worthy of his time; Hanji could handle Eren just fine and Rivaille had no reason to spend his time with scum, as far as he was concerned. Although, the kid was at least somewhat promising, from what Rivaille could tell. When asked what his goals were, Eren's eyes blazed with determination that was rarely seen as he claimed that we planned to kill every titan. Rivaille couldn't help to respond with a "not bad".

The court trial that would determine Eren's fate was scheduled for the day after Rivaille had determined Eren worth keeping, when he had seen the brat's true yearning to wipe out the titans.

However, that night, reports came of titans invading, and battle between beast and humanity was very quickly descending to a hellish nightmare. Without the aid of the elites, the scouting legion was likely to lose the fight for humanity. Levi, Hanji, and the others had no choice but to leave Eren in custody of the Military Police, and ride straight into battle. The scouts had no clue when they would be back, but Eren's trial would be put off until they were back. This left only the guards to keep Eren company each day, which didn't settle particularly well with them.

And so they made a cruel, twisted game out of their time spent in and around Eren's personal cell. They made bets on who could punch Eren with the most force, who could make Eren protest the loudest as they beat the living shit out of him, who could land the most blows on the wild animal. Another popular game among the police was to withhold Eren's rations from him. Most of his ration went straight to their mouths (As if they hadn't already had a full meal while hundreds of thousands barely had enough to eat for supper), but the "game" part of it was to throw the food near (but often not near enough) Eren and watch him fight against his chains, struggling to get even just a bite of food while he was completely ravenous.

In the beginning, Eren had always fought back with every ounce he had. He would bite anyone who even got near him, would try and land a blow on one of his guards even though he was restricted by his shackles. He screamed endlessly about being an ally of humanity and not an enemy. He shouted that the Military Police were the worst examples of soldiers that he had ever seen.

When humanity lives with too few troubles, humanity becomes careless. The military police no longer understood the value of a human life, much less Eren's. Eren was not wrong in accusing them of being poor excuses for soldiers. They found sick amusement out of watching Eren become weaker with each passing day.

Eren looked up only slightly as he heard the sound of guards switching out; it was time for the next two to have their turn with Eren. As Eren's dulled green eyes met theirs, their expressions turned from scowls to sadistic grins.

"Hey, monster! Got your food rations here. Betcha want 'em, aye?" The guard expected that would get a rise out of Eren. They got nothing in return; Eren was just staring blankly into space, practically unaware of his surroundings. He no longer cared about what the guards had to say, no longer cared about if the guards ate the food meant for him or not. The guards weren't pleased by Eren's lack of response- It wasn't as entertaining for them if he didn't bother to fight back.

On the wall opposite of Eren's cell hung a brass ring holding several keys, one of which was to open Eren's cell. One guard grabbed it and let Eren's cell clatter open, leaving nothing separating the guards from Eren. As they neared, one raised his hand in order to strike Eren to see if they could finally get a response from him. It soon became obvious that their efforts to anger Eren were in vain, and the guard's fist connected to the side of Eren's face. The other guard quickly joined in, aiming a kick at Eren's side. Eren felt the hardness of the boot slam against him, the force of it knocking him to his side. He tried to at least keep his own head up; that was all he could muster the strength to do. He still avoided eye contact with the guards, however.

Eren could feel another punch land near his jaw. He could feel fresh blood trickle slowly over patches of dried blood where his lip had already split countless times. Unable to put up any sort of a fight anymore, Eren let his head fall to rest on his bed, allowing blood to travel from his face to his sheets. That didn't matter, anyways; the sheets were already littered with patches of dried blood from the past two weeks.

There was nothing to fight for anymore. The guards had mastered the art of giving Eren _just _enough food to survive, but he was ravenous. He felt hollow. Every single minute in his cell was an eternity. He could fight against their punches and kicks and it would do nothing; his throat had become far too dry to make any sort of loud protest. The bed sheets were filthy; they hadn't been changed once since the Scouting Legion left. Eren's wrists had been rubbed completely raw from fighting against the cuffs so much. They bled often; any wounds that had gotten a chance to begin healing were almost always re-opened by Eren's struggles.

As the day progressed, more bruises and cuts found their way onto Eren's body. The guards had switched out several times already, but it was all the same to Eren.

The green eyes that had once blazed so brightly with determination had died. In their place were dull orbs that looked like they belonged to the dead. Eren had nothing left; he was nothing but a shell of his former self. Determination had failed him; it had proven to be useless in a world without light and barely enough rations to survive.

Two and a half weeks had passed and the Military Police was still waiting for the Scouting Legion to return for Eren's trial. But the hysteria outside of Wall Shina had finally begun to come to an end, and official word from a messenger had arrived stating that the Scouting Legion would be back within Wall Shina by morning, and Eren's trial would take place the day after.

One of the Military Police officers that had been one of Eren's guards realized that the Scouting Legion wouldn't be very happy if they discovered exactly how the guards had been treating their precious little hope for humanity. He decided to make sure that the monster knew exactly how he should act the next morning.

He entered Eren's cell and yanked him up by his shirt.

"Listen here, you little fucking beast, your scout buddies are coming back tomorrow. And if you value your life, you won't whisper a word about anything we've done to you here. Is that clear? One word and I'll make sure you never get to see the light of day. You don't deserve to be set free in the world, anyways. So yeah, if you whine about us to your precious little scouts you won't even have a chance. Dead, you hear me?" the guard was screaming in Eren's face by the end of his little rant.

However, a good portion of Eren's abuse was evident all over his body. Almost none of his skin was unmarked by a bruise or cut. His skin was a mess of various shades of purple, red, and even black. The only way to hide most of the damage would be to have Eren face the wall, hiding his face in his pillow and his body under the think blanket on his bed.

Eren just nodded slightly at the guard's rant, he figured he couldn't trust the Scouting Legion, anyways. They probably also believed that he was a monster, anyways. There was no way anyone in the court would fight to keep him alive; he wouldn't even be surprised if Armin and Mikasa would also decide that death was the best path for him.

If a person is constantly told they're scum, they're inevitably going to begin to believe it. Such was the case with Eren, and by now he truly believed that he was nothing but a monster waiting to be killed for the sake of protecting humanity. He had fought against his abusers to the best of his ability; it just wasn't enough. He was powerless, exhausted, wounded, and starving. If anything, death seemed like an opportunity full of bliss. He could only hope that the court would have enough mercy on his soul to make his death quick.

The Scouting Legion arrived back to the Headquarters of Wall Shina at approximately seven the next morning. After filling out an official report of what exactly had happened outside of the wall over the past couple of weeks, he decided it best to visit Eren's cell and see how he was holding out. He knew leaving him in the custody of the Military Police for so long couldn't have proven to be a good thing, but there was no helping it. The Scouting Legion had needed him, and there was no way the Military Police would have allowed Eren to go outside with them before the trial had taken place.

Followed by Hanji and a couple others, Rivaille made his way down to the dungeons. The guards had heard the scouts' approach and were positioned outside the door of Eren's cell – According to the rules set for them, they were only supposed to be in his cell to deliver his food and water for the day. They stood straight and proud, figuring that the scouts wouldn't be too concerned about Eren's general state of being.

The scouts found Eren laying awkwardly on his side, with his blanket covering his body up to the base of his neck. He was facing away from them, in order to hide his face. The guards had bothered to roughly clean up the blood on Eren's face before the scouts had arrived, but the wounds were still clearly visible.

Rivaille was not an idiot. He could tell as soon as he caught sight of Eren that the guards had treated Eren as a monster instead of as a human. Rivaille could guarantee that the guards had commanded Eren to lie that way; no human would lay like that of their own accord.

"Hey, kid, we're back. This means that there's a very real chance of you not only leaving this cell, but even leaving this entire Wall tomorrow, depending on how well you cooperate with us. So the least you could do is at least sit up and face us."

No, that wasn't true. The Scouting Legion wasn't here to help Eren. Corporal Rivaille was lying. They wanted him dead just like the guards had. Regardless, Eren knew that he should listen to Corporal. Even if they wanted him dead perhaps he could at least make them think he was human and not just a mindless dog. Although it was extremely difficult for Eren to focus; his mind kept drifting in and out of consciousness.

He tried his best to sit up and face the Scouting Legion, but even doing that required more energy than he possessed. His position could hardly be described as sitting up but at least now Rivaille could get a better look at him.

Lance Corporal Rivaille was very rarely thrown off-guard. Before the scouts had left, Eren's eyes blazed with determination and defiance that had been unmatched by anyone else Rivaille had ever seen. Now Eren barely looked like he was a member of the living.

While Rivaille was able to keep his composure, he was outraged. He hadn't been particularly fond of the kid to begin with, but this was too far. Eren's face was hollow and a bit sunken in by the lack of nourishment he had received. Rivaille was willing to bet that almost all, if not all of Eren's ribs were visible. His face was etched with countless purple bruises and rough red lines that had obviously been fresh cuts the day before.

This was blatant disrespect for human life. Rivaille's harsh manner of speaking and unapproachable tendencies often led people to believe that Rivaille did not care about people at all. This was not true – he believed that humans should not be undervalued. Especially those who passionately worked towards their goals, including Eren.

Tearing his gaze away from Eren, Rivaille turned to face the guards who began to look a bit panicked. "Who here would care to explain why exactly this kid is completely different than the one I left two and a half weeks ago? You have ten seconds to give me one good reason for this." The two guards avoided making eye contact with Rivaille; the look of contempt on Rivaille's face was undoubtedly terrifying.

"Ten seconds and neither of you even bothered to open your mouth. And you guys really have the nerve to call yourselves soldiers of humanity? Get out of here, now. Before I force you to go myself." Rivaille would not hesitate to remove the guards by force. If anything, they deserved it. However, they weren't really worth the effort.

Within a blink of an eye the soldiers were out of sight. _Cowards_, Rivaille thought. Hanji and the other scouts had just stood silently behind Corporal. "Hanji, you stay. The rest of you may as well leave and find something better to do." The scouts nodded and saluted to Rivaille before exiting the dungeon.

Grabbing the key, Rivaille unlocked the door to Eren's cell and entered it alongside Hanji.

Eren was looking down again and did not look up even as he heard the two elite soldiers approach.

Hanji was the first to speak. "Eren, the guards did this to you, didn't they? What exactly happened here while we were gone?" Eren stared blankly at Hanji. His throat was parched and he had a hard time speaking. He managed to rasp out that he had deserved what had happened to him because he was a monster. Before he could continue on, Rivaille had grabbed his water canteen from his pouch and handed it to Eren, commanding him to drink from it. Eren grabbed the canteen from Rivaille clumsily, almost spilling it several times before he managed to connect it to his mouth. This was the first drop of water he had gotten so far today and was by far the most access he had had to it in over two weeks. Raising the canteen to his lips, he began to chug down the water, fearing it would be taken away from him before he could get a decent drink from it.

Rivaille did need to take the canteen away from Eren in the end, but that was because he would quickly make himself sick by drinking too much too fast now that he wasn't used to drinking much. "Easy, kid. You're going to throw up if you keep up at that rate." He tried to avoid calling Eren a brat; Eren didn't need to be hearing any more demeaning names right now.

Just having that bit of water had helped Eren immensely. He was able to sit up a bit straighter, but he was still incredibly weak and fragile.

"Eren, could we have a look at you to see exactly how much damage they managed to inflict on you?" Hanji asked. Eren nodded a bit and didn't fight as Hanji slowly slid the blanket off of Eren. The two soldiers began to look over Eren's whole body, taking in the sight of all of the bruises and cuts that marked him. Once in a while Hanji would instinctively run her hand gently over one of the marks. Eren immediately flinched away from the contact in fear of being hit or kicked again.

"Eren, you don't have to be afraid of us. We don't wish for you to be dead like the Military Police did." This was the first time Rivaille had called Eren by his name. This was an attempt to help convince Eren that they were different from his guards. Eren refused to believe them, and he said nothing.

"Hanji. Go get Eren's rations from the Military Police, I want to make sure that we're the ones in charge of his food and not those pieces of shit." Hanji nodded and got up from Eren's side. "I'll be back in a few minutes."

While waiting for Hanji to return with food for Eren he got up and went to the wall that held the various keys for Eren's cell. The very last one was a small key that looked like it hadn't been touched a single time. Grabbing it, he returned to Eren's side and gently grabbed one of his wrists. Eren didn't fight it. With a small _clink_, Eren's wrist was free. Rivaille did the same for the other one.

The wounds on Eren's wrists looked awful and it was obvious that they had become infected. Rivaille noted that he would have to get them looked at and get some ointment for them. Eren stared in shock at Rivaille. Why would he set him free like that? He was a monster. He could hurt people, he could kill them. He deserved to be shackled.

Eren was tense in his half sitting half laying down position on the bed. He tried not to move despite being perfectly free to do so. He was incredibly tired, he decided. Lack of nourishment and guards that refused to let him sleep peacefully for a while had exhausted him. He closed his eyes and could have sworn he had felt a hand softly touch his shoulder as he drifted into unconsciousness.

Eren was woken up by the sound of two men arguing; one of them was Rivaille by the sounds of it.

"No. You guys are too fucking incompetent to do your own jobs so I'm going to handle the job tonight _myself_. Tell your boss whatever you need to, I really don't give a shit about how you get out of it. But if I see any of you guards trying to come down here to fuck around with the kid I'll kill you myself and make it look like an accident. None of you are to come anywhere near this cell tonight. Make sure all of your little friends get the message."

The guard left as soon as Rivaille was done speaking.

"Hanji brought your food down a few hours ago. Do you want it now?" Rivaille turned to face Eren once the guard had left; he had heard Eren stir while talking. Eren once again nodded, too weak to waste his energy on talk. Rivaille picked up a small tray from the table sitting outside Eren's cell and brought it to Eren.

"Well? Why aren't you eating? You're hungry, right? I know that they haven't been giving you your food."

Eren stared at Rivaille for a moment before opening his mouth to speak. "You're not going to hurt me if I eat it?"

"No. Now eat." Rivaille resented that the guards had managed to strike this much paranoia into him. He resented that the kid who had been ready to raise hell with anyone who came near him was now afraid that he would be beat up just for eating the food meant for him.

Eren tentatively picked up a piece of his bread and ate it. He waited a minute before taking another bite, and then another. The food was gone within a couple of minutes. Rivaille had been careful to measure out how much he would give Eren, making sure that Eren wouldn't eat more than his stomach could handle right now.

The guard Rivaille had spoken with must have managed to get the word out about Rivaille being the one to supervise Eren that night because nobody came near the dungeons that night. Hanji came down with a bit of ointment to rub over the worst of Eren's wounds, but other than that it was just Eren and Rivaille.

Despite his blanket, Eren found himself chilled to the bone as the temperature began to drop for the evening. He hadn't really been too cold in his cell before, as he was always either being assaulted to some degree or passed out cold for a few hours. He could feel himself shiver, causing his whole body to shake. Rivaille had just been standing against the wall outside of Eren's cell, but now he moved himself over to inside the cell.

He sat down beside Eren on the bed. Eren still hadn't moved a whole lot with his freedom, but he was now hugging himself trying to keep some warmth in his body. Gently, Rivaille picked Eren up and settled him onto his lap. Eren was caught off guard by this and without thinking whispered, "_Why?_"

"You're cold, aren't you? I could see you shaking from over there so don't even try to deny it. And this is the only way to warm you up, unless you'd prefer to freeze. Your choice, kid." Rivaille answered.

Eren didn't protest although he remained tense for a few moments until he realized that Rivaille had no malicious intent towards him. He was still reluctant to trust Rivaille but was slowly catching on that the soldiers were indeed in his favor. This surprised Eren greatly and he was still confused as to why they would be willing to put their trust into a monster. But for tonight, he was still alive and he would have plenty of time to ask questions in the morning. For now, he was willing to accept Rivaille's offer to warm up.

He turned to face Rivaille and buried his face into Rivaille's chest, and nestled himself into Rivaille to the best of his ability, feeling the warmth seep slowly into his bones. Rivaille let Eren nestle up to him and found himself relaxing a bit knowing that Eren could recognize his enemies from his allies, even if only slightly.

Soon Eren was nice and warm cuddled in Rivaille's arms. He was sleepy again and began to let his eyes close and his mind wander to the realm between sleep and reality. Rivaille lifted his hand that wasn't being used to support Eren and gently grabbed a piece of his hair, smoothing it between his fingers. He was fully aware of how dirty Eren was, but that didn't matter. Rivaille was willing to hold Eren in his arms all night despite the filth of their surroundings. However, he would make sure they both had a chance to get clean before the trial. Eren would not be taken seriously in court with dirt caked all over him and patches of dried blood covering him.

There was no chance that Rivaille would leave that cell that night, even for a second. No, he would never truly let Eren go. That night, as Eren received the first full night of peaceful rest in over two weeks, Rivaille vowed that he would protect Eren and make sure that nothing like this could ever happen to him again.


End file.
